Pintxo People, Brighton

Poor old Spain. Everyone has pinched its distinctive way of eating and made it their own. We have Indian tapas at Imli, Italian tapas at Salt Yard, Chinese tapas at OQO and French tapas at Maze. They are really just variations on a theme of small plates, but the idea of tapas is so strong that the term is often used and abused. Even the new Spanish and Catalan chefs are turning tapas into something its own mother wouldn't recognise.

Now Brighton has gone neo-tapas, at Pintxo People, a new Basque and Catalan-inspired eatery. It's an upstairs-downstairs arrangement, with a cosy, casual tapas-as-we-know-it bar on the ground floor, and a glossy, clubby restaurant and bar serving tapas-as-we-don't-know-it upstairs.

In the bar, a group of girls sit at a wooden communal table, gathered around single-minded platters of cured ham, salted anchovies and little green Padrón peppers. They pour "Black Sangria" spiked with 25-year-old sherry and spiced with ginger and macerated fruit into traditional Spanish glasses that are low-slung, wide and fine. This attention to detail on the drinking side has a lot to do with the fact that Pintxo People is the brainchild of Jason Fendick, the mixologist behind popular bars such as Ling Ling, Zeta and Rockwell.

Young Spanish girls gambol around the room like puppies, happy to show off the pintxos (£1 each) on display, explain the menu, or bring a cold Cruz Campo beer (£2). The pintxos (pronounced pinchos) are little snacky bits on bread or skewers. I go straight for jamon and manchego, always a winner.

With its wooden furniture, floors and shelves and produce-driven deli feel, the ground floor seems very much a part of the new Brighton breed, from the Real Eating Company to Bill's Produce Store.

The upper level is another story altogether, no pun intended. Cruise up the circular staircase and enter a moody, theatrical scene dramatised by huge red chandeliers and soaring stained-glass cupolas. A seriously stocked bar, complete with a discreet Martini station, pulls a smart young crowd towards huge squishy couches, where the cocktail list takes them through the classics chronologically, in order of invention. There is nothing quite like getting blotto in correct historical sequence.

In the dining area, slim tubes of light are suspended over spacious paper-and-cloth covered tables and fabulous swivel chairs, picking out faces like ushers' torches. The tabletops are deliberately unset, with a small basket bearing both cutlery and chopsticks. A little TTH perhaps (trying too hard), but then along comes the menu, which is completely OTT.

Chef Miguel Jessen, who worked at the two-Michelin-starred El Amparo in Madrid, cooks in the I'm-bored-with-this-what-can-I-do-to-it? modern Spanish style. So a list of share plates runs from pickled rabbit "gayoza" with mustard ice cream, to wild-pork fillet with pineapple and lentil curry.

Jessen first sends out a baby Martini glass layered with foie gras, coffee and mango purée that actually makes me wonder - if fleetingly - why foie gras is not served with mango purée and coffee more often.

More orthodox is a platter of sweet, nutty Iberico jamon (£12), thinly sliced from a boned leg rather than thickly hand-cut, and served with a bowl of crushed tomatoes and some crisped baguettes.

The staff are adorable: caring, and as keen as mustard. Cool-dude restaurant manager Bruce Bartholomew steers me towards a ripe, full-bodied Prado Rey Ribera del Duero (£25) that instantly plays Sancho Panchez to the increasingly quixotic food.

The kitchen ramps up the volume with a platter of fresh-tasting miniature roast-vegetable terrines (£6); neat little blocks layered with red and yellow pepper, courgettes and aubergine topped with curls of anchovy that taste like re-formed Catalan escalivada. Next up, four little black pudding-filled filo pastry cigars (£5) sit up like windmills from moulded purées of savoy cabbage and apple. Too much pastry and not enough morcilla makes them less interesting than promised.

At this point, I'm having such a good time, being looked after by a gang of charming young things, that they could forget to bring the food and I would be happy. Some dishes seem to bear little relation to Spain and just when you expect another platter of precisely aligned and art-directed morsels straight out of Spain Gourmetour magazine, you get a dish of boiled octopus tentacles (£6) served very plainly with crushed potatoes studded with chorizo. A three-part dessert of apple tart, apple flan and an icy, dry basil sorbet (£5) is marked down as "please try harder", but in general, the eating is stimulating and the experience engaging.

Pintxo People is Catalan but also Brighton, classy but cool, glamorous but friendly, romantic but professional, casual but serious, deeply modern but comfy. The kitchen could possibly stop showing off quite so much but, already, I feel sorry for poor old Spain again. It's such a long way from Brighton.

15/20

Scores 1-9 stay home and cook 10-11 needs help 12 OK 13 pleasant enough 14 good 15 very good 16 capable of greatness 17 special, can't wait to go back 18 highly honourable 19 unique and memorable 20 as good as it gets

Pintxo People, 95-99 Western Road, Brighton, Sussex, tel: 01273 732 323 Lunch and dinner daily. Around £50 for two in the bar; £85 for two in the restaurant, including drinks and service

Second helpings - Brighton eateries: the new breed

Due South 139 King's Road Arches, Brighton, tel: 01273 821 218

Located right on the beach in one of the arches below the promenade, Due South combines in-your-face sea views with food that is mostly seasonal, local and organic. Try local wild- rabbit kebabs and pan-fried Sussex scallops with lemon and parsley butter.

Bill's Produce Store The Depot, 100 North Road, Brighton, tel: 01273 692 894

This offshoot of Bill Collison's much-loved Lewes store is Brighton's new favourite stop for bread, cheese, fruit and veg. Sit among the colourful produce and munch your eggs benedict or sardine pizza, then buy your way out and stay home to cook.

The Real Eating Company 86-87 Western Road, Hove, tel: 01273 221 444

Not just a great bakery, food store, deli and wine shop, but a café that cooks incredible ingredients with a light hand. Have eggs Florentine for breakfast, pie and mash for lunch or whole gilt-head bream for dinner. The cheese counter is a highlight.